Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

March 4, 1865

Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of
the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in
detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now,
at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the
great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the
energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for
the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All
dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugural
address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to
saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city
seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the
Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated
war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation
survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.
And the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern
part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of
the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was
the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by
war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to
restrict the territorial enlargement of it.

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause
of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict
itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a
result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible,
and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just
God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of
other men’s faces; but let us judge not, that we be not
judged. The prayers of both could not be answered—that of
neither has been answered fully.

The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the world
because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but
woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall
suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in
the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to
those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope—fervently
do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled
by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three
thousand years ago, so still it must be said, “The judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to
care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.